Opening Shot

BPM has been in business for twenty years in Waterford (as of 20/10/2008). The shops in Wexford (2001), Mallow (2005) and New Ross (2006) are more recent.

BPM has always been a specialist music store but recent developments in music retail have meant that music alone can no longer support the costs of running a business. This is in a large part due to music now being available in a much larger number of outlets. Ten years ago music was available in three or four outlets in Waterford - now it is available in almost every supermarket and service station.

BPM stores carry a huge range of music - from Irish country to heavy metal. Most of these titles are not available from the new sellers (supermarkets etc.). Unfortunately these back catalogue titles do not sell quickly or in large numbers. In the past, sales of chart titles could be relied on to pay the overheads - the huge back catalogue was a luxury. With the advent of music sections in the large supermarkets a lot of chart sales have been lost to specialist stores such as BPM. The back catalogue is now supporting the business. In this situation new faster moving products have to be found to sustain the business.

In June 2007 the shop in Waterford was re-organised to include a large DVD section. This was accomplished without a significant reduction in the specialist music sections through the use of a new design of browser.

However at that time our vinyl section was finally closed. This was the end of an era that at one point saw BPM with the largest selection of vinyl outside Dublin and Cork.

More recently BPM has introduced a large selection of branded merchandise. One line of merchandise is composed mainly of figures - Scarface, Crow, Kurt Kobain, Simpsons, Slash, Motorhead, Alien and many more. A second line of merchandise is composed of wallets, wristbands, keyrings, etc. Again, these lines have been introduced without significantly reducing the specialist music ranges.

How long the specialist music store can survive in its present form is anyone's guess but one thing is for sure - to survive in this business you need to keep changing, moving and adapting.

The major general retailers are having an impact on a lot of specialist stores - grocery, hardware, electrical, florists, off licences etc. In the case of music they are only interested in the fast moving chart titles or the low price (and low quality) budget titles. Unfortunately the chart titles were the 'bread and butter' of the specialist music store. There is nothing wrong with competition - it keeps all businesses sharp. It has never been a better time to be a customer!

If you are interested in music, not just the current charts, then you should support your local music store so that future generations can have the experience of physically browsing through a large back catalogue and discovering golden nuggets of music that they might otherwise never find.